Being a student at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus (UPRM), or Colegio, is something that changes our lives and proves to be an important chapter. However, life after Colegio is a very real thing. After all, that is what Colegio prepares us for. Unconsciously or not, UPRM seeks to prepare us mentally and emotionally for the rollercoaster of life, adulting, and further studying.
Passionate, irreverent, and resilient are some words that describe Geysel Gómez Lozada, an UPRM graduate who’s discovered the harsh side of adulting everyone warned her about. However, there were some aspects in which there was no way to be prepared for. Geysel is currently studying at the Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law in Knoxville, Tennessee. She admits how she is the first UPR student to study there, which makes her “very proud to be the pioneer and very aware that [she] carries a big responsibility on her shoulders.” Yet, being a Boricua there has opened her eyes to many things. Although the South is riddled with prejudice, most people embrace “the hot mess that being a Boricua implies,” and try to understand more and more about our identity. Geysel continues saying how the people she’s met are like “a circle pretty much like the one I had back at home but with a very thick accent, y’all. I have already introduced them to the tostones…it’s amazing to be an ambassador of your nation in a place where there aren’t many.”
(Photo credit: Malina Phrommala)
Before all this though, Geysel went through many adventures at Colegio, some of which were extremely positive, others challenging, and some not quite so and yet, offered valuable life lessons. There truly is no true failure in life, because as Janet Fitch says, “the phoenix must burn to emerge.”
Amidst switching majors when she was 30 credits (about 10 classes) away from graduating and all the craziness this unleashed, Geysel included a very special challenge in her life, Her Campus. Starting as a writer in 2014, by the following year, she was Campus Correspondent i.e. “the big chief.” These couple of years helped her develop discipline, time management, leadership skills: “English as a second language, the relationships, the networking; it opened many doors.” However, being able to handle criticism was the top lesson she learned. Admittedly, most readers gains upon writing offer constructive criticism, though others unwittingly gave away malicious comments to the wind, not knowing or caring of the effect of these.
(Geysel along with some of her colleagues of Her Campus UPRM)
The thick skin Geysel developed through this leadership experience wasn’t at par with keeping up with well-being and stability of her inner thoughts and feelings. After graduating from Colegio with her bachelor’s degree in Political Science, Geysel was accepted at a Journalism program at Columbia University, an Ivy League school at New York City. After several months, the lack of balance in her life led to her eventual burnout. She decided to put herself first and forgo the amazing academic opportunity. A year later, she was offered a scholarship at the Lincoln Memorial School of Law, where she currently studies Law. It was through this experience that she realized the utter truth of a Colegial resiliency: “I feel a special kind of pride about being a Bulldog, we are a unique breed, as one of my best friend says, we are ‘Tonka.’ if you make it at El Colegio, you make it freaking anywhere!”
This fallout experience taught her something nobody prepared her for: that Colegio truly prepared her to deal with life, with impossible bosses (professors), and to develop perseverance. Geysel expresses how she has “experienced the best of success, yet the worst of failures, in all aspects of my life. True character can only be achieved through defeat. You learn courage, to recognize your mistakes and determination to change your ways. You develop empathy towards those who just like you have been broken.” She continues saying how those failures and disappointments might have been the best thing that happened to her: “I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t messed up so much along the way!”
Those “failures” actually opened her eyes towards putting herself and her health first. She developed her new goal in life: “To live my life focused on a greater purpose. I truly believed everybody has a special and individual calling.” She continued saying that if you go through life thinking about yourself exclusively, your life would “be meaningless and pass by unnoticed.” She reminds herself every day to pour herself out in love, unconditionally and to embrace her calling to help others.
An eternal puppy lover, Geysel is fueled by the love of those around her. She admits that, in regards to that ever-fearsome stage of life of adulthood, she’s “really not sure there is any good thing about adulting, honestly, except, maybe, wine? The worst part is cooking, for sure, and paying bills, but mostly cooking.” In addition, she recalls that she clings to these words a former History professor told her: “success is never achieved alone.” When she graduated and took her final steps in the Mangual Coliseum was when she realized that “having everything in the world means nothing if you have nobody to share it with. Life is all about relationships, about family, about having someone to come home to.” Ending the cycle of experience and advice, Geysel shares this tip with newcomer Colegiales: “Enjoy it, every bit of it. Persist, persist, persist, hang in there, it is totally worth it!”
We wish Geysel the best of luck in her Law endeavors. We know she will change the world through her work both in Law and in helping others in her community. Remember, that changing the world starts in yourself.